Occupational Therapy

Program of Study

The professional entry-level Master of Science program in Occupational Therapy is designed for students who have a bachelor’s degree in fields other than occupational therapy. The full-time, 80 credit, two-year (24 months) program consists of daytime and weekday classes with some evening labs.

The program begins June 1, and all courses are sequential.

The curriculum is designed to provide an excellent education for students planning for professional roles as occupational therapy practitioners in traditional settings, as well as in areas of newly identified need. All qualified students are awarded a Master of Science degree after successful completion of the coursework. The coursework includes didactic classroom courses, fieldwork clinical experiences, scholarly projects, and capstone project presentation.

The occupational therapy program integrates students into a community of professional graduates, who seek to become caring and competent health professionals, and who value the unique synergies possible in an inter-professional education approach. Le Moyne College creates an environment that promotes a holistic approach to the care of the total person and encourages the sharing of information and the teamwork found in today’s health and rehabilitation professionals

The curriculum design grows from and embodies the mission of Le Moyne College, as well as the mission and philosophy of the Occupational Therapy Program. The mission of Le Moyne College embraces the concepts of academic excellence rooted in the Jesuit and Catholic tradition and based on the foundation of liberal arts education. The Jesuit principle of cura personalis reflects the occupational therapy belief in assessing and treating the individual as a whole.

The Occupational Therapy programs focus on the development of forward-thinking occupational therapy practitioners engaged in global healthcare rehabilitation agendas and an inter-professional approach to education and learning. Global views of rehabilitation roles require numerous iterations to integrate the multiple skills needed to contemplate and effectively propose solutions to a rapid changing health, community and educational system.

The curriculum design metaphorically resembles the Nautilus with its chamber providing the platform for the occupational therapy program intended outcomes:

Leadership and communication

Global perspective and knowledge

Creativity and innovation

Interdisciplinary learning

These outcomes are consistent with the mission and philosophy of Le Moyne College and the Department of Occupational Therapy. The ever-increasing spiral shape of the chamber is created by the centrality of occupational science and occupational therapy: the person (an individual, family, or community), the context (space, place, time, or situation) and the occupation (everyday activities occupying our time such as care for self and others, work, education and leisure).

The framework, which emerges from the curricular design, underscores three major trajectories: PERSON-OCCUPATION-CONTEXT (POC).

Level I Fieldwork provides an introduction to the fieldwork experience while familiarizing students with a variety of clients and contexts of intervention. AOTA states that "The goal of Level I fieldwork is to introduce students to the fieldwork experience, to apply knowledge to practice, and to develop understanding of the needs of clients" (ACOTE, 2011, p. 33). Level I fieldwork is carried out in a wide variety of ways at occupational therapy educational institutions across the county. Level I fieldwork consists of three, semester long Level I experiences and two, twelve (12) weeks Level II experiences. It begins after one semester of foundational content, allowing students to pull through, build on, & apply core knowledge with new settings encountered. In line with our developmental curriculum design each student will have a Level I experience with the mental health population, childhood/adolescent population, and with the adult/older adult population The timing of Level I experiences coincides with an assessment and intervention course to allow students to apply what they are learning in the classroom to the field.

Level II fieldwork is on-going supervised clinical experiences in which the emphasis is on the application of the academically acquired body of knowledge. Students are supervised by a licensed or registered occupational therapist with a minimum of one year of practice experience. "The goal of Level II fieldwork is to develop competent, entry-level, generalist occupational therapists. Level II fieldwork must be integral to the program's curriculum design and must include an in-depth experience in delivering occupational therapy services to clients, focusing on the application of purposeful and meaningful occupation and research, administration, and management of occupational therapy services. It is recommended that the student be exposed to a variety of clients across the life span and to a variety of settings" (ACOTE, 2011, p. 34). A minimum of 24 weeks of full-time fieldwork is required. At Le Moyne College, students complete two 12 week experiences, which typically include 12 weeks in a community setting and 12 weeks in a clinical/medical model. The Academic Fieldwork Coordinator strives to place students in their areas of interest while balancing AOTA's recommendation to provide students with a variety of learning experiences.

Level II Fieldwork may require relocation for at least one of your experiences. Relocation means that you may be placed at an agency that is more than 100 miles from your residence. Every attempt is made to accommodate student living arrangements, however availability and need may dictate the Level II selections.

Every student must have at least one fieldwork experience that has as its focus the psychological and social factors that influence engagement in occupation (standard C.1.7, ACOTE, 2011, p. 33). Therefore, any student who has not had a Level I fieldwork experience that fulfills this standard will be placed at a Level II agency with a primary psychosocial focus. This may require relocation as describe above.

The entry-level occupational therapy master’s degree program is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE) of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA), located at 4720 Montgomery Lane, Suite 200, Bethesda, MD 20814-3449. ACOTE’s telephone number c/o AOTA is (301) 652-AOTA and its Web address is www.acoteonline.org Graduates of the program will be eligible to sit for the national certification examination for the occupational therapist administered by the National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy (NBCOT). After successful completion of this exam, the individual will be an Occupational Therapist, Registered (OTR). In addition, all states require licensure in order to practice; however, state licenses are usually based on the results of the NBCOT Certification Examination. Note that a felony conviction may affect a graduate’s ability to sit for the NBCOT certification examination or attain state licensure.